Cooperative multi-point (CoMP) transmission is a heavily studied technique to improve overall communications system performance (e.g., high data rate coverage, cell-edge throughput, overall system throughput, etc.) in homogeneous communications systems. Generally, in downlink (DL) CoMP transmission, multiple geographically separated signal sources, such as cells (also commonly referred to as base stations, NodeBs, enhanced NodeBs, and so forth), relay nodes, and so forth, may transmit to a single user (also commonly referred to as terminal, mobile, mobile station, user equipment, subscriber, and so on) to improve the overall communications system performance. While, in uplink (UL) CoMP transmission, a user's transmissions may be received at multiple geographically separated points (e.g., cells, relay nodes, and so forth).
However, in a heterogeneous communications system, wherein there may be cells of different transmission power, various backhaul solutions, and/or different subscribe groups, CoMP transmission may be difficult to implement as well as may not provide sufficient performance improvement to garner much interest. Typically, a heterogeneous communications system provides cell splitting gain, but may need additional work to provide desired interference and cell-edge performance.
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods for improving overall performance in a heterogeneous communications system.